Category Archives: Let’s Dance!

Switched On: Jessy Lanza – Love Hallucination (Hyperdub)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Jessy Lanza’s fourth solo album for Hyperdub was originally intended for other people to sing. However during the writing process, the Canadian singer realised the songs were too close to home for anyone else to sing, the lyrics telling of her own life experience.

The seeds for Love Hallucination sown, she set about collaborating with like minded producers, delivering an album commonly agreed to be her most personal work yet.

What’s the music like?

This album hits on a winning combination of club-savvy productions and personal lyrics, giving Jessy Lanza several ways in which she can move her listeners.

Fragility and anxiety are freely discussed and explored – but so are sexual likes and dislikes, relationship dos and don’ts, dreams and fears. All are freely expressed over beats and trim productions sculpted with the help of well-chosen producers such as Pearson Sound, Tensnake and Jacques Greene.

The voice matches the beats beautifully – in Greene’s case setting a nocturnal scene for Midnight Ontario, or with Tensnake delivering disco goodness for Limbo. By contrast the niggly, angst-ridden tales like Big Pink Rose or Don’t Cry On My Pillow get agitated beats to match.

Yet good as the beats are, the voice is the star – and Lanza’s cool delivery is distinctive but also an instrument that communicates her thoughts and feelings with unerring clarity.

Does it all work?

It does – this music is cool to the touch but full of expression. The urban soundscapes work a treat too.

Is it recommended?

It is. An album that mixes club sensibilities and tales that tell of deeply felt, first hand experience.

Let’s Dance – Joyhauser: In Memoro (Terminal M)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

After three well-received singles in Wasted, Liberty and Bassdrone, Joyhauser release their debut album. The Belgian duo have spent three years honing their craft, building a strong following underground – but now is the time to put their heads above the parapet and show their true worth.

What’s the music like?

There is some thrilling dancefloor action on In Memoro.

Leben is a powerful opening track, a brooding slower number that catches light halfway through as synth lines flicker like lightning. The coiled spring energy is emphatically released in the quickly paced LXR02, a dark chocolate number with tough beats and a strong workout for the synths.

Elsewhere the combination of minimal but probing synth lines and sharply edged beats yields plenty of rewards. Bassdrone and Liberty are both dancefloor thrillers, and each track brings something to the table.

Does it all work?

Yes. Excitement levels remain high throughout!

Is it recommended?

It is. An excellent debut that bodes well for the future.

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Let’s Dance – Fredfades – Caviar (Mutual Intentions)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Fredfades is the name under which the versatile and well-travelled Norwegian producer Fredrik Øverlie records. With hip hop and rap on his CV, Øverlie – also an accomplished DJ – is using this album as a way of documenting his travels and some of the many musical styles he has encountered, showing off his versatility at the same time.

Caviar is his second Fredfades album, following six years after the release of Warmth. It features a number of guest vocalists.

What’s the music like?

Caviar is a really strong album, packed with durable riffs, feelgood vibes and strong beats, knitted together to make a strong album that has the ideal ebb and flow.

The title track gets us underway, an accomplished poolside jam that sets the scene for a record that proves willing to look back as much as it looks forward. That much is clear in the rolling ‘90s beat of Winner, one of Øverlie’s finest moments, with its catchy vocal snippet giving it the ideal club vibe. Well, Well, Well does brilliantly in this respect too, using a riff on the glockenspiel that really stays put!

The vocal tracks are on point, too. Bendik HK brings the heat to Summer Of Love in tandem with a peak time piano riff, while Kristian Hamilton lends smokey tones to My Heart Is On The Edge. Tenerife 1994 goes deeper, Krushed Ice joining for a well-worked tribute to Pharoah Sanders that would please the likes of Kevin Yost – while the Balearic vibe is strong on Intuition, where MoRuf’s ‘you are one of a kind’ vocal makes a strong impact.

Does it all work?

It does – the proportions of each track are just right, meaning the album flows really well.

Is it recommended?

Definitely. This is an album to keep close to your ears as the summer warms up!

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Let’s Dance – Various Artists: fabric presents Chaos in the CBD (fabric Records)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

The sibling duo Louis and Ben Helliker-Hales, who make up Chaos in the CBD, beam in from New Zealand as the latest contributors to the fabric presents series.

In the process they mark a decade in music, bringing together a set of house music described as ‘creating a tunnel between 1990 and 2007…a timeless listen, condensing the ebbs, flows, gear changes and the feelings that surface during an all-night set experience in 80 minutes.

The idea is to appeal to experienced listeners whose foundations lean heavily on rave music, but also newcomers getting into the genre for the first time.

What’s the music like?

This is a highly enjoyable, fluid mix of music that enjoys a good many twists and turns in its 77 minutes.

Chaos in the CBD are quickly into their stride, setting the scene before hitting a pretty much immediate high with Z-Formation’s Secret Departure. There are some nice lines floated throughout Hanna’s You & Me, where “I can see you in my dreams, you and me”, then some quality nocturnal house from Chris Brann – he of the Wamdue moniker – who contributes the wonderfully chilled Journey To The Centre, complete with airy piano.

We hear the deep Raymond Castoldi cut, into The Jungle, which segues nicely into the quality Tarenah from Psychedelic Research Lab, adding a bit more percussion. By the time Deep Sided‘s Fly You kicks in the vibe is definitely older school rave – and with a riff to match.

The mix roughs up really nicely through the likes of The Element, whose cut Oh You Got Me sounds great in its Deeper Than Deep mix. When Chaos in the CBD themselves surface with Higher Elevation the camera has panned out again, before Dana Kelley and Brothers Of The Underground offer slightly rougher, disco-infused cuts once again.

Musically the mix gets more adventurous the more it moves, and the wandering eye of Blak Beat Niks with Kerri Chandler proves a great listen on I’ll Be There, a Brazilian infused beauty. House music proper reasserts itself for Box Clever and I’ll Eat You (If You Were A Box), then the upfront Raunchy After Dark from Sound Clash Republic. Finally the deepness returns, with the lovely JD Hall and Johnathan Morning effort Into You, by which time the tempo is quite nippy.

Does it all work?

Yes – the brief very much fulfilled, with house music of varying dimensions and depths mixed into a really satisfying whole.

Is it recommended?

It is. Quality deep house is not always easy to find, but there is plenty of it here – and enough to satisfy those whose persuasions head more for the rave or even the jazzy side of things. Recommended!

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Let’s Dance – Alexander Robotnick: Kind Of Disco: Simple Music Vol. 2 (Hot Elephant Music)

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by Ben Hogwood

What’s the story?

Alexander Robotnick doesn’t do anything by halves. The Italian producer – real name Maurizio Dami – has been making disco or disco / house hybrids with great success for more than 30 years now, so it comes as little surprise to report that a second volume of Simple Music follows hot on the heels of the first, at a distance of just three months.

Simple Music refers to the sort of music Robotnick wants to hear when he goes digging for records, and finds him delivering eight new tracks for the dancefloor.

What’s the music like?

Classy. Robotnick is a past master at this sort of stuff, and the music here achieves its aim with the minimum of fuss. Green Past is a great way to start, a bit of mood music with an atmospheric, repeated vocal that would work just as well with opening credits as it does at the start of a disco album. Robotnick knits the melodies together with ease. And Here It Comes Again is a strong Italo-disco cut, and moody with it.

Intergalactic Travel is a brilliant 80s-present day hybrid, with a suitably deadpan vocal and complementary riffs underpinned by a strong beat. Though it is pure escapism the track is actually discounting the possibility of reaching new worlds! Arpico is similarly effective, its oscillating riff bathed in warm textures.

The World Is Dark, proclaims a whispered voice, while its counterpart suggests ‘the world is shiny’. Rippling synthesizers respond, and a bass that glints in the darkness – again a highly effective track. A Blow To The Heart is a burst of nostalgia – ‘listen to your early mixes’, it warns over a squelchy bass. Canzon Triste introduces hints of melancholy, a more minimal and less effective track, but Le Carillon sweeps that away with a riff that bounces around like a game of ping pong, set to a strong rhythm.

Does it all work?

It does. Robotnick knows exactly what he is doing, and the hand of experience delivers eight consistently good tracks primed for the discerning dancefloor.

Is it recommended?

It is – and it’s as good as the first volume.

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You can listen to clips and purchase at the Juno download website